Previews

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Preview

Spiffy:

New elemental powers look fun; fights are bigger than ever.

Iffy:

Early fights looked very easy; still unsure if it'll feel too familiar.

I can't imagine anyone was shocked when sequels quickly followed 2003's successful Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The rate at which they popped up was surprising, though: Publisher/developer Ubisoft cranked out two sequels in two years, culminating in 2005's uninspired Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. In that short span, the titular Prince went from a lovable hero to a dark, grizzled character who, despite some spry moves, felt like he needed a long, long vacation.

Enter 2008, when the franchise was re-envisioned again, in the experimental -- and somewhat confusingly titled -- Prince of Persia. While the cel-shaded visuals and one-on-one combat were bold steps in a new direction, the game also removed your ability to fail: You essentially could never die, thanks to a partner that conveniently undid all your fatal mistakes... and, along with them, almost all the requisite sense of accomplishment.

If the last PoP game was an experiment, then the upcoming Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands makes it feel like a failed one. Instead of continuing the story of the 2008 Prince, Forgotten Sands is an interquel that brings The Sands of Time's protagonist out of retirement. My fear, of course, is that Forgotten Sands will be little more than a return to the old formula -- another iteration that retreads the ideas introduced in Sands of Time, at the expense of its own unique vision. While it's still too early to answer one way or another, after checking out a short demo of the new-old Prince back in action, I'm not ready to count him out yet.

Water Works

Environmental puzzles that rely on reaction time have always played a big part in the series, and Forgotten Sands puts the Prince through his paces. The traditional column climbing, wall-running, and pole-swinging activities appear frequently in the demo, but Forgotten Sands gives the Prince new powers that seem to dramatically change the way you explore environments. The Prince now enjoys the ability to interact with elements, with water being a particularly important tool. Using the Prince's powers to solidify and liquify water on a whim, you must utilize both states in order to reach otherwise unavailable areas.

For instance, you might swing on a pole, only to quickly solidify a waterfall (it only stays solid for a short period of time) and use it as a wall to leap from. Such situations become more complex when the game forces you to rapidly change water from liquid to solid in order to conquer environmental puzzles. For example, you might jump through one waterfall only to solidify both that waterfall and the next one; then you can rapidly "wall jump" between each one to reach higher ground. Granted, the way that water is used while solid is immediately familiar -- wide waterfalls take the place of walls, while slimmer bodies often turn into columns -- but the twitch factor it adds could bring new challenges to proven gameplay.